Little Marsmen and Cauliflower Fields
Can an algorithm determine your identity,
and does it match what you think of yourself?
“When we used to ask “Where do I come from?”, as kids we all got different answers.
For one it was “of course you come from a cauliflower field!”
while for another it might have been “you come from Mars”.
This difference has to do with culture, tradition and norms; we grow up with these so differently, but in the end we all come to the same conclusion: what is my identity? Where do I actually come from? Surely not from a cauliflower field...?
We are all out there looking for our true “us” and our identity.
With this social research in the form of an interactive quiz, we look at personality in modern society:
how can you capture something as personal as your own identity in the modern world?
The "Marsmen" part of the title comes from me. I don't feel at home anywhere, I feel in a gray area, and so initially I discussed this with Micaela and Lisanne. Micaela felt that too, and Lisanne found the subject interesting. And so our project was born.
When we were working on the prototypes, I was mainly the photographer,
filmmaker and editor. I made also the quize site by myself.
So I was mainly the technician in my group.
The film of my identity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIrROJreUS4
The text that is spoken in my film is in Dutch, so here is the translation.
My mother used to say they adopted me from Mars. I think because they thought I was quite 'different'.
I believed this until a certain age, maybe 7 or 8. But the question is, do I still believe that? Of course not.
But sometimes it seems like I don't belong in this world. I don't feel at home. In the Netherlands I don't feel like a Dutch person. And in Turkey I don't feel like a Turk. I'm in a gray area. I don't feel at home anywhere.
I feel different when I'm in an environment with 'normal' people. I feel different when I am in an environment with 'abnormal' people. I have always had the feeling of being different from others. But I am happy with that. Perhaps this can be an answer to the question: What kind of identity do I have?
But I still don't know who I am. Because how can I be sure that tomorrow I won't feel differently than this?
We develop every day. Every time we learn something new from ourselves. We are all unconsciously seeking an answer to the question: “Who will I become?” Instead of “Who am I?”